I am going to show you how to setup a password manager, create your password file, store it in a place so that you can access it from multiple devices, and open it on a mobile device for easy access anywhere you are at.

8 Steps total

Step 1: Find yourself a Password Manager

Find yourself a password manager. If you don't know where to start, Google is usually a good place to start.

For this How-To, we are going to use KeePass 2.28 (current version as of writing). You can download Keepass from KeePass.info

Step 2: Download & Install Your Password Manager

Once you have found your password manager of choice, download it and install it. Typically you will want to keep the defaults, but once completed, you can check out the preferences to customize it to your likings.

Step 3: Create Your Password File - Step 1

In KeePass, we are going to create the file that will hold all of our usernames, passwords, and urls for sites for easy entry.

Give your file a unique name, something that you can distinguish as your passwords. However, remember security is key here. I would not name your file passwords.kdbx. Database or default would be fine, or whatever you choose.

Also, when encrypting your file, I would use a standard password that you can easily remember but would be hard for somebody else to figure out. Instead of a "PassWORD", make it a "PassPHRASE". Change some letters into numbers or special characters to make it difficult for somebody else to figure out.

I would not use the Windows Account feature, unless you can find a way of port your credentials to your mobile device for you to authenticate while you are on the go. I would also not use a key file unless you are going to store that file in a different cloud and can find a way of getting it to keepass on your mobile device.

Step 4: Create Your Password File - Step 2

In the next screen, I would skip over to the encryption and keep it at the AES/Rijindael (256-bit key) as it is currently the strongest encryption for keepass.

I typically do not concern myself with compression as I have a ton of passwords in my main file and it is still only 13 kb in size and I use no compression at all.

The rest of the tabs you can explore but are not dependent on anything in the future of this How-To.

After you click "OK" here, you have created your file and can begin dumping all of your usernames and passwords off of your monitor bezel and your super secret notebook under neath your keyboard/mouse pad. Your file is stored in your documents folder, but we are going to move it later on. So keep in mind where you have it.

Step 5: Find your cloud service

Now, go find how you are going to sync this file across your devices. There are multiple cloud services out there to choose from. It all depends on what best suites your needs. You have Dropbox, Mozy, Google Drive, iCloud Drive, OneDrive, and Sugarsync.

These services may have different space factors, such as 4 GB or 10 GB, while others may have a 30-day free trial or free for a certain amount of space, but more space will cost you so much per month or year, or you can only transfer so much data per month, etc. Look and see what best fits for your situation.

Step 6: Create your account and download your client applications

Once you have chosen your cloud service, create your account and download their clients to your different devices. Typically they will have the client for your computer, but you will have to find their app in your devices app store (Apple's App Store, Google Play store, etc.)

While you are there, download the app for KeePass (or whatever password manager you decided to go with). For iOS, its going to be MiniKeePass. For Android, its KeePass2Android. This is what you are going to use to open your password file on your device.

Step 7: Move your file over to your cloud service

Once you have installed your cloud client on your computer, your cloud client will typically create a folder in your computer and will sync all files and folders within that folder. Take your password file and move it to that folder. It will be sent to your cloud provider's datacenter for safe keeping.

Step 8: Open it on your mobile device

Go to your mobile device, and open the cloud's app. Sign into the cloud service with the credentials that you created earlier.

Once in the account, find your file and open it in your password managers app. It will ask for the encryption key, that you gave earlier on your client desktop.